buAYYYy-bee
CAROLE KING, “It’s Too Late” | Tapestry, 1971
The lyrics of “It’s Too Late” — by Carole King’s songwriting partner, Toni Stern — have been praised for being mature, blameless, and setting a template for how to leave a relationship on good terms. Some lines could be pulled straight from a final love note or a last conversation on the stoop: “One of us is changing or maybe we just stopped trying,” “You look so unhappy and I feel like a fool,” “I’m glad for what we had and how I once loved you,” “I just can’t fake it.” Even the city-walking tempo set by King suggests that a healthy and melancholy post-breakup amble to explore the city’s forgotten offerings is in the cards.
But King, at the height of her powers on 1971’s Tapestry, is so charming in her delivery; she’s a lover and a friend with an open and courageous heart who knows what’s best. Her “babies” cover a lot of ground in a short span. They are rounded and full, soulful, and — most of all — familiar to her tongue. “Baby” has been said so many times in this relationship, after all. (Which makes it really suck that she’s leaving!) And it feels like, in her explanations of why she must break up, there is the acknowledgement of the lovely (and difficult) alternative future that she’s leaving behind. And for what? It doesn’t matter; it’s too late. She’s standing on the corner now, arms folded, agreeing to disagree, and moving on.
